The Most Wonderful Man

So my friends will commence their usual eye-rolling and gagging noises when I post this, but I don't care, so there. It's time for me to write about The Most Wonderful Man in the World (otherwise known as Bill) by way of "introducing" him to my family, since so many of them live so far away!

So the man you see in the picture on the front page of my blog is Bill. We met last year through my next door neighbor/Bill's good friend Rich. It also happens that we've been attending the same church for a few years but since it's huge had never crossed paths. We became good friends last fall and by Halloween I was completely crazy about him. It took the month of November for us to figure out that was mutual and by Christmas we were "officially" dating.

Some stats on Bill: he's 34 (that's TWO YEARS older than me, haha), is divorced with two kids (more on them later), is a web software programmer with Citi, grew up in Richardson, plays hockey, and is a Wildcat (University of Arizona). Something that is interestingly coincidental: he is also dyslexic and from 4th through 7th grades attended the school that I currently work at (for children with learning disabilities). Many of the old-timers around here remember him (they have varying things to say about his troublemaking skills, teehee).

The important things about Bill: he is truly one of the kindest, most empathetic, genuine, good-natured people I know. It's such a cliche to say this but it's absolutely true that he has a heart of gold and a genuine desire to serve and help others. In fact, one of the things that brought us together and attracted us the most to each other was our desire to serve others. Last fall/winter we participated in several feed the homeless projects together. Since then we have served regularly with a local orphanage called Jonathan's House. (Orphanage isn't really a good term for it since most of the kids we work with there aren't true "orphans", rather they are kids who have been removed from their parents by CPS and are awaiting foster families. But I digress).

In case you can't tell I am absolutely crazy about Bill and the best part is, I am lucky enough that he is equally as crazy about me! I've never met anyone quite like him and we are a very good match for each other in so many ways. I have no doubts that our relationship was planned and ordained by God, and that everything we have both been through in the past has served to prepare us for each other. While we're not officially engaged we are talking about getting married and probably sooner than most of you would guess. It's another cliche that happens to be true: when you know, you know.

His kids are absolutely precious! Merit is 5 and Luke is 3. When Bill and I were just friends last fall I spent some time with them but when we started dating we decided it wasn't appropriate for me to be around them in that context for a while. So I didn't see them for a few months, and just recently we decided the time was right for me to start spending time with them again. I adore them, and I'm fairly certain they return the feelings, at least for now!

Merit is in a stage where she LOVES "big girls" and so she pretty much wants to do "whatever you want to do, Wendy" and her favorite colors are "whatever your favorite colors are" and she would like for us to have matching clothes. Occasionally she wants to eat her pizza the way I eat mine (yes I'm a freak, I take everything off because I just like the bread and the sauce). Luke being three is just simply adorable--he is in so many ways a "mini-Bill"! They are a lot of fun. Bill is a terrific father--they are very lucky kids to have someone who loves them absolutely but is not about being a "Disneyland dad" as is the temptation in a divorce situation like this. He shares 50-50 custody with their mom and has a fairly good co-parenting relationship with her, so even though the situation is not ideal for little kids, it's about the best it could be given the circumstances.

I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on becoming a stepmom, which I'll post more about later. This post is already getting long enough!!! If you've gotten this far, I hope you're not bored to tears. More to come!